On President Trump's handling of the missing Saudi journalist: I think the President's decision to send Mike Pompeo out there to talk to the Saudi leadership and the Turks and to come back and give us a report is a good idea. And Secretary Pompeo is on the way back sometime later tonight I understand and I'm going to withhold judgement about the appropriate response to this. If what happened is what we think happened I can't imagine there won't be a response. (00:56)

On if he trusts Saudi government to conduct the investigation: I assume the Turks will be involved in it as well. We hear that there is audio and video of the incident. So, it should be possible to figure it out if what we're hearing is correct and then I think we'll decide where to go from there. (2:04)

On why the Kavanaugh confirmation seemed personal: I think there were two things on trial during that. One was the presumption of innocence. I mean we had Democrats on the Judiciary Committee saying the presumption of innocence shouldn't apply. This is America and I was angry about it and emotional about it and I think the American people were as well. There ended up being no corroborating evidence and when that's the situation in this country you are presumed innocent. The second thing I was passionate about was the tactics that were being used to try to intimidate my members and oppose Judge Kavanaugh. They were running senators out of restaurants, going to their homes, getting in their faces here in the Capitol. I know the difference between a demonstration and an effort to intimidate and of course this was an all out effort to intimidate members of the Senate. I couldn't be prouder of my members, who stood up for the presumption of innocence and stood up to those who were trying to intimidate us. (2:57)

On the difference between an angry mob and people who just opposed Kavanaugh: I mean it depends on the location. If you're out at a rally that's one thing, but if you're right here at the Capitol trying to intimidate members who vote on the confirmation or chasing them out of restaurants or going to their homes that's different from what we're accustomed to here in Washington, which is peaceful protest about a whole lot of things. There are protesters in Washington on any given day on some subject and that's of course as American as apple pie, but what was different about this was an effort to literally frighten and intimidate our members into voting against Judge Kavanaugh. Nobody felt the brunt of that any more than Senator Susan Collins, both in her home state in Maine and then right here in the Capitol. (4:12)

On Susan Collins decision to support Justice Kavanaugh: She was a profile encourage because she represented a blue state. An easy thing for her to have done would have been for her to oppose Justice Kavanaugh. She quietly and calmly weighed the evidence, realized there was no corroboration of the story that was being told by Dr. Ford and upheld the presumption of innocence and reached, in my view, the right decision. She did it in the midst of wholesale efforts to intimidate. (5:42)

On judicial confirmations: I love the tax bill and I love all the other things we've done in this Congress, but the closest thing that you can have to having a permanent impact on the country is through the courts, lifetime appointments. And the President has been sending up outstanding relatively young men and women who believe the job of a judge is to interpret the laws as written. Those are the kind of people that are being set up. We are confirming them as rapidly as they come out of the committee. The 29 circuit judges that we have done so far is a record for any administration this early in it's term and if we're lucky enough to still have the majority after the November election we're going to continue to do that and have a long-term positive impact on the country. (6:34)

On saying Biden Rule would not apply in 2020: I pointed out you have to go back to the 1880's to find the last time a vacancy on the Supreme Court created during a presidential election year was confirmed by a Senate of a different party than the president and I said that back in 2016. The Biden situation was Democrats in control of the Senate and Republican president. There was no vacancy but he volunteered that if there were one they wouldn't fill it. 2007, Democrats in charge of the Senate and George W. Bush in the presidency. Schumer and Reed both said that if a vacancy occurred 18 months before the end of his term they wouldn't fill it. I was simply pointing out what the history of this is and that's exactly what we did in 2016, a Republican majority in the Senate and Democratic president. (8:25)

On his prediction of the midterms: I never put a number on it, but I can tell you that we have very close cliffhanger races in places like Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida. We start off with 51 and they start of with 49. I'd rather be at 51 starting at this sprint to the finish than 49 and I'm optimistic we can hold the Senate, but I can't give you a prediction or I'm not going to give you a prediction on a number. (11:05)

On if the judicial nominations would stop if Democrats won: I do. (12:09)

On if bipartisan criminal justice reform can happen: We've done a lot of stuff on a bipartisan basis. When we were in the big Kavanaugh fight we did an overwhelmingly supported opioid bill and 5-year FAA bill and we recently funded 75% of the government before the end of the fiscal year, that hadn't happened in 20 years. So, we've had some big fights, but we're also able to accomplish things and I think it's at the top of the list after we get back, funding the remaining 25% of the government and passing a foreign bill and it's possible we're going to take a look at criminal justice and see what the whip count shows and how much support there is for some version of it, but clearly we're going to have to fund the remaining 25% of the discretionary budget of the United States and pass a foreign bill. And we're going to continue to process the judges. (12:24)